IMS Research has recently released its latest forecast for the world power management & driver IC market, which predicts a year-on-year fall of revenues of close to 15% in 2009. Suppliers' release of financial results from fourth quarter 2008 and their outlook for the first quarter 2009, and the unfolding of the global economic crisis, make it apparent that the IC makers will be hit much harder than previously anticipated.
The latest update of the IMS Research forecast predicts that, after a reasonably strong year in 2008 with total revenues of over $13 billion, 2009 is expected to reach only a little over $11 billion. The worst affected sectors will be portable consumer (because of a fall in cellular handset shipments), automotive and desktop PCs. The notebook PC market is expected to be a little more resilient, as sales of netbooks continue to rise.
Analyst Ryan Sanderson from IMS Research's power and energy division commented, "The general feeling from semiconductor suppliers and industry experts is that 2009 will be an extremely bad year for the semiconductor industry as a whole. Some suppliers are predicting revenue falls of 30-40%. Whilst power management and driver ICs typically outperform the overall market, a double-digit fall in revenues in 2009 now seems inevitable."
Sanderson added, "Looking beyond 2009, strong growth is expected to return to power management and driver IC sales. 2010 is still expected to show good recovery with revenue growth in high single digits, with year-on-year growth moving into double digits in 2011 and 2012".
